Anti-malaria drugs could treat Parkinson’s disease

June 17, 2015 

Associate Professor at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) School of Biological Sciences Yoon Ho Sup with a protein sample, which will then be inserted into a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy machine to identify the compounds which could bind and activate Nurr1 in the brain. Photo: Jaslin Goh 

         

         Anti-malaria drugs could potentially treat Parkinson’s disease, scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the United States, have found.The drugs, chloroquine and amodiaquine, share a basic chemical structure that allows them to bind and activate a class of proteins called Nurr1, which protects the brain’s ability to generate dopamine neurons.

Parkinson’s disease disrupts the production of dopamine neurons, which progressively causes the loss of motor control as dopamine is an important neurotransmitter that affects motor control and movement of muscles in the body.

The research was a four-year collaboration between Professor Kwang-Soo Kim from McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Associate Professor Yoon Ho Sup from NTU’s School of Biological Sciences.

They screened 1,000 US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs before discovering the two anti-malaria drugs that worked.

In laboratory tests, rats injected with the drugs improved in their behaviour and later showed no signs of suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

Prof Kim, a leading expert in Parkinson’s, said the current gold standard of treatment is to replenish the patient’s dopamine levels through medication or by deep-brain stimulation using electric currents.

“However, these pharmacological and surgical treatments address the patient’s symptoms, such as to improve mobility functions in the early stages of the disease, but the treatments cannot slow down or stop the disease process,” he said.

The team is modifying the two drugs to be more potent while having fewer side effects. They are also finding new chemical compounds which could activate Nurr1. If all goes well, Assoc Prof Yoon estimates clinical trials could start in three to five years’ time.

“Our research shows that existing drugs can be repurposed to treat other diseases and once several potential drugs are found, we can redesign them to be more effective in combating their targeted diseases while reducing side effects,” said the expert in drug discovery and design.

Chloroquine was used to treat malaria in the late 1940s to early 1950s until the malaria parasite grew resistant, while amodiaquine is still used in Africa today. Side effects include hallucinations, nausea and diarrhoea.

Parkinson’s disease affects three in 1,000 persons aged 50 and above, and is one of the most common neurodegenerative conditions in Singapore.

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There is currently no cure or treatment to slow down or halt the disease, whose symptoms include tremors, muscle stiffness and changes in speech.

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